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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's exports fell for the second straight month in November, hit by faltering demand from Asia and Europe.
Exports shrank 4.5 percent from a year earlier to 5.198 trillion yen ($66.7 billion), according to a finance ministry report released Wednesday. The result is steeper than October's 3.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment rates fell in 43 states in November, the most number of states to report such declines in eight years.
The falling state rates reflect the brightening jobs picture nationally. The U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply in November to 8.6 percent, the lowest since March 2009.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An appeals court has ruled that Chinese-made goods shouldn't be subject to certain kinds of import duties imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington upheld a ruling Monday that the duties, called "countervailing" duties, can't be applied to Chinese-made goods because it doesn't have a market economy.

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors says it will honor warranties of Saab cars that were sold in the U.S. and Canada while the Swedish automaker was part of GM.
Cash-strapped Saab filed for bankruptcy in Sweden Monday. The company has suspended warranty coverage for all vehicles in North America.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — Sara Lee Corp. has plans to build a $3 million expansion that will create 55 new jobs at its St. Joseph meat-processing plant.
Mike Cummins, Sara Lee's spokesman, told The St. Joseph News Press (http://bit.ly/t0q0kr) that the company is starting a construction project in St.

SANDY, Utah (AP) — A fire at an animal feed plant forced authorities to evacuate some nearby residents Monday as they tried to keep chemicals from getting into the air.
City spokeswoman Trina Duerksen said health officials and Utah National Guard were monitoring air quality at Fur Breeders Agricultural Cooperative, which houses containers of ammonia and other chemicals, she said.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Vulcan Materials Co., the nation's largest producer of construction materials, said Monday that it will cut roughly 200 jobs as it consolidates operations in an effort to reduce its costs.
The job cuts will come mostly from overhead and administrative staff, while employees at its plants will be largely unaffected, the company said.

For more than 90 years, the coal-fired power plant in Glen Lyn, Va., has been churning out electricity and contributing to local prosperity. Of late, it has generated nearly a quarter of the revenue for the $1 million budget of the town.
Yet when the plant ultimately shuts down to comply with new federal air pollution regulations by the end of 2014, says Town Manager Howard Spencer, so too might the community of 200.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal agency is siding with Apple and ordering an import ban on HTC phones that infringe on a patent belonging to the iPhone maker.
The U.S. International Trade Commission said Monday that the ban will take effect April 19 so that wireless carriers will have time to adjust their plans.

TOKYO (AP) — Georgia college student Kristy Williams was almost killed when a metal piece flew out of an air bag in her 2001 Honda Civic — a traumatic accident her lawyer says might have been avoided had there been an earlier, more comprehensive recall.
Williams had even arranged to get her air bag fixed.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter on Tuesday to replace aging jets in its air force and bolster its defense capability amid regional uncertainty.
"Our decision on the next-generation fighters was an extremely important one for our national security, and we wanted to acquire fighters with solid capability," Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa said.

Online search and advertising giant Google is teaming with investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. to develop four solar energy farms serving the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California.
Google, Inc. said Tuesday on its Green Blog that it will spend $94 million on the projects.

SHANGHAI (AP) — Authorities are investigating the cause of an explosion over the weekend that injured dozens of people at the Shanghai factory of a supplier to Apple Inc.
The government formed an investigation group and ordered safety checks at the Riteng Computer Accessory Co. factory, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple supplier Pegatron Corp.

DENVER (AP) — A California specialty painting company pleaded guilty Monday to five counts of violating federal workplace safety rules that resulted in the deaths of five workers at a Colorado power plant in 2007.
Under terms of its plea agreement, RPI Coating Inc., of Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Attorneys for a Utah company that brought a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. said it will seek to retry the case with a new jury after a federal jury failed to reach a verdict.
Novell Inc. sued the software giant in 2004, claiming Microsoft duped it into developing the once-popular WordPerfect writing program for Windows 95 only to pull the plug so Microsoft could gain market share with its own product.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — AT&T Inc. is hanging up on its $39 billion bid to buy smaller wireless provider T-Mobile USA, nearly four months after the U.S. government raised concerns that it would raise prices, reduce innovation and give customers fewer choices.
The long-expected announcement left AT&T grumbling about a shortage of airwaves to expand its services, while scrappy competitor T-Mobile remains up for sale by German parent Deutsche Telekom.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Nebraska meatpacker recalled more than 40,000 pounds of ground beef products distributed in 16 states after a test confirmed the presence of E. coli, the Agriculture Department said Friday.
The products were shipped to institutions and distributors in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

DENVER (AP) — A California specialty painting company is expected to plead guilty in the 2007 deaths of five workers at a Colorado power plant, in the rare prosecution of a company.
RPI Coatings Inc. of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., is expected to plead guilty Monday to five misdemeanor counts of workplace safety violations resulting in death.

PITTSBURGH, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Stan Johnson, International Secretary-Treasurer of the United Steelworkers (USW), today announced the union's support of newly introduced Senate legislation to revitalize American manufacturing through federal transportation and infrastructure investments.

SYDNEY (AP) — Members of an Australian class action lawsuit who blame a German pharmaceutical company's anti-morning sickness drug, Thalidomide, for causing birth defects won the right on Monday to have their case heard in their own country.
German drugmaker Grunenthal had requested that the lawsuit be heard in Germany, because the company and many of its witnesses are based there.